Video game mods have given us everything from DLC-sized expansions to multiplayer support, but this might be something nobody saw coming. When we hear "merging video games," we usually picture Master Chief swapped in for Lara Croft or similar character model mods. Putting one entire game inside another wouldn't even cross our mind, but that's exactly what's happening here.
The latest example comes from mod creator Tobyn Jacobs, who showed Minecraft running inside the Elden Ring. The clips show Steve swinging a sword at Lands Between enemies while Minecraft's hotbar, hunger and armor bars sit on screen. Jacobs says all 1,600 items, working redstone and Creative Mode made the trip too, and he claims it runs on a Mac. There's no download link or release date yet.
Popular Now: G.Skill replaces a $150 RAM kit now selling for $1,199, earning a customer for life in the processIt isn't just Minecraft and Elden Ring either. Others have been showing off similar projects over on X, including Escape from Tarkov mechanics in Skyrim, Minecraft movement in GTA V, Call of Duty: World at War Zombies mixed with Mario Kart, and Mario firing bullets at Master Chief. Weapons, movement, enemies and inventories from completely different worlds are being brought together, and almost any combination now looks possible.
One explanation behind this phenomenon doing the rounds from modders on X is a "passthrough" approach, where both games run side by side and mods let them swap data like collisions and visuals. Recompilation tools such as N64: Recompiled, which turn old game binaries into code that runs natively on modern hardware, make games easier to pull apart, and some projects have source code to lean on, so nobody has to rebuild every mechanic from scratch.
AI is also speeding up parts of the process. Rehan Sheikh's open-source Universal Modder gives Claude Code tools to work out a game's engine, decompile code, find mod loaders and test changes, and it even includes a "mashup-mods" workflow for ports, reimplementations and using decompiled games as libraries. It has only been shown off with Terraria and Age of Empires II, though, and it's not clear which of the viral clips used AI at all.
Story Q&A
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From TweakTown's coverage of this story.
How are Minecraft’s combat, inventory, and survival systems adapted in Tobyn Jacobs’ Elden Ring mashup?
How does passthrough modding synchronize gameplay data between two running games?
How does Universal Modder’s mashup-mods workflow use decompiled games as libraries?
Which Nintendo 64 games have been made playable with N64: Recompiled?
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Despite all the bashing of AI slop in video games, this feels like one of those rare cases where AI is genuinely looking useful. In what other world would we have seen Steve gliding through Skyrim's snowy peaks, or skateboarding in Call of Duty?
